Making Freezer Jam

Note: This method does not kill E Coli. Please make sure you wash your hands thoroughly when working with food. I am posting this due to an outbreak from a single farm in Oregon made the news. Cooking / canning methods kill these bacteria if they are present. 

The berries are here! We have been taking full advantage of berry season whether it is at the grocery store snatching up a 1/2 flat of Skagit Valley berries or at the Farmer's Market eating up Sweet Earth Farm's delicious Tri-star strawberries that we just can't seem to get enough of into the mouth of a certain 4 year old. 


In years past, I have grabbed blackberries from our "berry orchard" (read: wild berries) at the end of our driveway and frozen a few gallon bags for over the winter. We are such berry lovers that they are always gone by mid-December and I am always promising myself we will gather more "next year". 


Throughout the years, I have always been envious of the families that had fresh berry preserves the whole year through while I was buying jar after jar at the store. Growing up in Orange County didn't really include spending summer days making jam, so I never had it in my repertoire of skills and figured it was beyond me...same with vegetable gardening. Since I tackled the later, I figured I could dive into jam (doesn't that sound fabulous?). My one reservation was dealing with a huge boiling pot of water and hot jars while I have a curious 4 year old and a VERY squirmy 8 month old who, um, interact a lot these days.

Last summer, one of my dear friends was raving about freezer jam. "It is SOOOOO easy". She is sooooo right! Here is the recipe I used and Cole could help! No heat! I imagine this would be wonderful for those of you who live in places where the temps are soaring as well.

Just a note about the recipe. As I looked at various recipes online and in my 4 preserving books (yes, I have them and read them. I just haven't dove into the process yet, but I am getting there). I liked this recipe because it had considerably less sugar in it. This is the recipe on the  Ball Real Pectin container. It is a keeper.

Also, make sure your jars and lids are CLEAN. I like to throw mine in the dishwasher on the "sterilize" cycle right before I use them. 



BERRY FREEZER JAM - makes 6 - 8oz jars of jam


Supplies:
Potato masher or hand mixer (the hand mixer is GREAT for the blueberries)
Flat bottomed bowl for mashing / mixing fruit
6 - 8 oz clean straight-sided jam jars with lids
5 cups of crushed fruit (single berry variety or mix & match)
2 cups of granulated sugar
6 tablespoons of Ball Real Fruit Pectin Instant Pectin


Procedure:

1) Wash fruit and prep. This means remove stems, hull strawberries, if you want to get technical. Make those berries look pretty.

 2) Place berries into flat bottomed bowl, one layer at a time and mash, mix, practice a little anger management. Pulverize that fruit using your potato masher or hand mixer.


3) In a separate bowl, mix sugar and pectin.


4) Add fruit mash to pectin / sugar mixture and stir for 3 minutes.


5) Ladle into clean 8 oz jam jars and cover. When filling jars, leave 1/2 inch headspace to allow for food expansion during freezing. Let stand for 30 minutes and use immediately or freeze.

THAT IS IT!!! DONE! JAM!! It is good for 3 weeks in your refrigerator or up to a year in your freezer. Really, that is it. Can you believe it?


Now for the taste test....

EASY PEASY!!! Now it is your turn. Try it out. Seriously, you can do this!

Now you can do this with Strawberries, Peaches or Pears, Raspberries, Blackberries, or Blueberries and Cherries. If you use peaches, add 3 tablespoons of lemon juice.


To be honest...I am giving mine a round in a pressure cooker. I will keep you posted on the results.

{This Moment}: Shoeless

A Friday ritual from Amanda at Soule Mama.

A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week.

A simple, special, extraordinary moment.

A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

By other big project this week was launching my new site: WHYZE-WORDS

Processing Zucchini / Summer Squash - Part II: Grating & Freezing

This time we are going to look at another method for keeping all of that delicious summer squash into the winter. It is so straightforward, you will be shocked. Grating and freezing. This method is great for storing up squash to use in baked goods, soups, casseroles and more. In addition, this is a great way to use your zucchini that have mysteriously turned into baseball bats overnight. While they aren't the best for grilling and eating fresh, they are a great source of summer produce over the winter months.


Method Two - Grating and Freezing


Supplies needed:

• Zucchini
• Sharp kitchen knife
• Cutting Board
• Ziploc freezer bags
• Plastic Straw
• Sharpie
• Cookie sheet

Procedure:

1) Harvest those larger than large zucchini and rinse them with clean water.

 2) Slice the zucchini in half from top to bottom and then across the center.

 3) IMPORTANT!! Those big bad boy zukes have some tough and nasty seeds in them which is why we don't just slice them up and grill them. Using a tablespoon, scoop out the large seeds and dispose of them.

  

 
4) Using a food processor (mine just went KAPUT...do you see a theme here?) or grater, grate your zucchini into a large pile of wet mess.

Side note:  If you leave your cutting board level, you will end up with a puddle of zucchini juice somewhere around your board and then on your floor. If you place a folded washcloth under the board on the counter side and lean the opposite side over your sink, it will all run into your sink. Guess who remembered this a little too late.

 5) Measure out appropriate amount of squash for your favorite recipes. My favorite zucchini bread recipe requires 1 cup of zucchini, so I made each of my bags 1 cup full.

6) Spread the zucchini out so it is in a smooth layer in the baggie. Zip the baggie closed with the exception of a small opening at the end. Place a straw at least 3 inches into the baggie and suck the air out. Zip 'er shut!! Removing the air will reduce the chance of freezer burn.

7) Place bags onto a cookie sheet and freeze. I like to put these smaller bags into a larger freezer bag once they are frozen for organization sake in our freezer. I label the large bag and place it on top of the cookie sheet when I put it in the freezer. You know, in case life happens and I don't get back to the freezer to process everything until I need my cookie sheet (which right now could be forever since our oven is KAPUT).

 8) Mission completed! When you defrost your zucchini, drain all of the excess liquid before using it. This can easily be done by trimming a small hole in a bottom corner of the baggie and squeezing out the water.

If you haven't seen my post on Blanching and Freezing your zucchini / summer squash, check it out!

Processing Zucchini / Summer Squash - Part I: Blanching & Freezing

It is the second day of August and my zucchini is BOOMING! My oven has gone KAPUT though, so I am feeling really limited as to what I can accomplish with my zucchini. As a result, I decided I would start processing it now and write a little post about it. My dad and his partner were visiting and could watch the wee ones, so that helped with the timing as well.


I will review two methods for keeping some zukes for the winter months. First, blanching and freezing which is great for adding summer squash to winter stews, soups and casseroles. Blanching is a process where you immerse the vegetable of choice in boiling water for a set period of time and then immerse it in ice water. This is great when serving them fresh, but it is a really great way to preserve them as well. Click here to see Method II: Grating and Freezing.


Method One - Blanching and Freezing


Supplies needed:

• Zucchini
• Sharp kitchen knife
• Cutting Board
• Large Pasta Pentola
• Large bowl
• Ice packs
• Strainer
• Ziploc freezer bags
• Sharpie
• Cookie sheet

Procedure:

1) Harvest zucchini when it is 6-8" (to 10") long for this method. I will have another way to keep it if it is longer.

2) Rinse zucchini clean with fresh water.

3) Using a sharp kitchen knife, trim off ends and cut the rest into 1/4" slices.

4) Prepare your ice bath by placing clean ice packs in a bowl. I like to use ice packs because they seem to melt slower than ice. 

4) Fill a pasta pentola 2/3 of the way full of water. I like using a pentola because I can remove the squash immediately from the water when the time is up and add more squash to the already boiling water to keep the processing going. 

5) Once your water is boiling add your sliced squash to the pentola. I would suggest processing one type at a time.

6) Wait for 3 minutes and remove the strainer of the pentola and give it a few, quick shakes over the pot to remove excess water.

7) Pour your squash into the ice water. Gently run cool water over the hot squash to cool the temperature and then place the ice packs on top. Wait at least 5 minutes. This will stop the cooking process.

 8) Pour cooled squash into a strainer. I suggest labeling your bags before filling them. Make sure you include veggie type, processing date, and amount. At this point you can use a FoodSaver to preserve your squash or you can place it into a single-ish layer in your Ziploc bags.

9) Zip bags shut except for a small hole at the end. Stick straw in at least 3 inches and suck air out of bag. Quickly slide the straw out and zip 'er shut!

11) Place flat bags on a cookie sheet in a freezer that is at most 0 degrees F.  After a couple of hours, you can remove the cookie sheet and you will have beautiful, easy to stack and store bags of your freshly grown summer squash.

Frozen squash is good for up to one year when kept in a freezer that is 0 degrees or cooler. After defrosting, drain the excess liquid before adding the squash to your recipe.

ENJOY!

On to...Part II - Grating and Freezing your Zucchini / Summer Squash!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

How does it grow? To be honest, I don't know. Thursday I opted for toes in the sand since the sun was shining. We did take a quick break as the sun was setting and water our beds since we were officially experiencing "warm weather" days and we would be heading out camping for the next three days.

As my little helper was watering the beds, I checked on the zukes and yellow zukes. Oh my. Well, we had grilled zucchini for dinner. I cut 8 from the garden, gave 5 to our beloved neighbors and we ate 3. I pulled 3 onions to chop for beef stew in the Dutch Oven heated with well-tended coals and breakfast potatoes hot in the cast iron skillet over the morning fire. (Side note: We also dined on fresh Dungeness crab both nights. We do not skimp when camping!)

Back to the garden. My snap peas are done *wince*.

For the first time, I am going to just head out, shoot, upload and share. Ready, set, go.

Oh dear. 5 more zucchini. 7 more yellow zucchini and 2 patty pan and there are SO MANY MORE!!! Any takers?

For the last two years, I have lined my beds with marigolds. They bring in bees and a flash of color.

French pumpkins are growing!

Delicata squash - a first for us

Pumpkin bed gone wild. The watermelon are kaput. 

Weeds, pumpkins and grass living in harmony.

Pumpkins S T R E T C H I N G out onto the "grass".

Soon to be...

Ah yes. Perfection.

When you run out of room, create your own path.

My lil' helper

Odd tomato

garlic

St. John's WOrt - merely for the color, not for the focus

This is what happens when you don't harvest for 4 days.

Calling all neighbors!!!